“I was disgusted by the report,” Silveria told a crowd of civic leaders who gathered Friday for his annual address on the state of the academy. “I was disgusted by the results of the report and it is unacceptable for the Air Force Academy.”

Silveria said the jeans-as-uniform day is part of a plan to bring the academy to the forefront of a national conversation on sexual assault.

Denim Day, April 24, in which people are encouraged to wear jeans to raise awareness of rape and sexual assault, grew out of a 1998 Italian court ruling that overturned a rape conviction because the victim wore tight jeans. At the academy it will be held in conjunction with the general’s Pathways to Prevention summit, which will solicit ideas from cadets on how to stop sexual crimes.

“The bottom line is we have to do better, the Air Force Academy will remain a place of dignity,” Silveria said Friday. “We intend to lead in this area.”

The Pentagon is pushing its military academies to address sexual crimes, and last week brought together Silveria and his counterparts from West Point and Annapolis to discuss the issue.

Reported sexual assaults in the academic year that ended last May were down, from 33 in the prior year to 29 in 2018.